New data guide aims to help songwriters get every penny they are due

completemusicupdate.com:

A new website has launched to help UK songwriters understand the different bits of data that they need to generate and provide every time they write a new song.The Get Paid Guide has been launched following the recent signing of a metadata agreement by the British music industry.

That was one of the outputs of the economics of music streaming work instigated by the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office in response to Parliament’s big old inquiry into the workings of the digital music business.When new recordings are delivered to streaming services, generally only the recording is uniquely identified by an industry standard code – that being the ISRC.

The song contained in the recording is not identified in that way, ie the code for identifying songs, the ISWC, is not usually provided.When it comes to credits, the main artist’s name will be submitted, as might be some information about the songwriters, but the names of other musicians and producers involved in the recording are usually not included.That missing data means that many music-makers are not credited on the streaming services, despite copyright providing a moral right to attribution for creators.Meanwhile, on the songs side, the missing data makes the processing of song royalties extra complicated, which often results in delays in getting songwriters paid, plus higher admin fees coming off the royalties the writer is due.

And sometimes the money doesn’t reach the writer at all.With the metadata agreement, stakeholders across the music industry have agreed to raise their game to try to get more data in the system around new releases.